Barnsley was a rural district in the West Riding of Yorkshire, England from 1894 to 1938.
It encompassed the surrounding area but did not include the town of Barnsley.
A directly elected rural district council (RDC) replaced the previous rural sanitary authority, which had consisted of poor law guardians for the area.
[1] The district consisted of a number of rural parishes surrounding Barnsley.
[1] The rural district initially consisted of eight civil parishes:[1] Under the Local Government Act 1929, county councils were obliged to review the districts into which their county was divided.